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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A
seven year old boy has allegedly shot dead his three year old sister at Asuoyeboah,
a suburb of Kumasi.

The
incident occurred Wednesday afternoon in a semi-detached two room apartment,
believed to be Mission House of a local charismatic church.

“I
was with a friend when I heard the gun shot, so we have to run there. When we
got there we saw a three year old girl lying in a pool of blood with a seven
year old boy running away. So I held the boy, I questioned him and he said he
was playing with the sister with the gun when the gun fired”, narrated to a
resident, Akua Afriyie Amanfo.

The
injured girl was sent to the Kwadaso SDA Hospital in an unconsciousness state,
said Dr. Agyemang Boateng, Medical Director at the hospital.

He
told Luv Fm “the girl had been shot in the head and the brain matter was actually
exposed and she was bleeding”.

She
received sterile dressing and was transferred to the Accident and Emergency
Unit at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

The
kids are alleged to have been playing in a room next door, occupied a young man
who is said to be plying his trade at Suame Magazine.

The
police team that arrived at the scene could however not immediately retrieve
the firearm, which is reported to be a locally manufactured shot gun.

Investigations
have started but residents are seeking answers to diverse questions, including
how the room remained unlocked when the occupant was out at work, why a gun
would be left in the open in such a room, how and why the gun was acquired and
what the children were doing in the room?

The
mother of the two kids, whose name is given only as Ama, a pure water seller, is
presently emotionally unstable to speak.

At age 36, Michael Nyinaku is setting an
excellent pace in the world of business for many a Ghanaian youth presently
seeking employment opportunities.

As Chief Executive Officer of the BEIGE
Group, Mike has founded a number of wholly-owned Ghanaian companies in finance,
hospitality, real estate and logistics as well as a
charity Foundation for orphans and the vulnerable.

Today, Beige Capital and Beige Village,
Golf Resort and Spa are fast growing as competitive brands on the market,
generating employment and .

Mike was adjudged the Best
Young Entrepreneur for 2011 at the Ghana Entrepreneur Awards and has emerged the overall male National Youth Personality for the year at the National Youth Achievers Awards (NYAA).

He
is ‘humbled’ by the recognition and believes this is the time for the Ghanaian
youth to take the mantle of leadership.

“It’s
our time and we’re lucky to have a climate that is favourable for enterprise”,
he told Luv Biz Report in an interview. “People of our age have had this
opportunity because back in years, people could not express their initiatives
but now we have political stability, there is a lot of investment coming into
the country and there is belief in us as a people that can do better for our
country”.

The
young achiever is optimistic Ghana’s youth “would turn things around” in the
next ten years.

Meanwhile,
BEIGE Capital has increased its branches to 18, with the opening of six new
branches in Kumasi.

The
networks, located at Atonsu, Adum, Bantama, Suame, Tafo and Afful Nkwanta, have
recorded about eight thousand customers in less than three months of
operations.

“At
Beige Capital we believe in rapid expansion because we’re not going to
foreclose our business anytime soon. We’ll be in Kumasi for a lifetime, that is
why we did not hesitate at all in opening six branches in one day… we are in
Kumasi to partner the business community and grow with Kumasi”, stated Mike
Nyinaku.

The CEO says the company is
raising the bar in the financial service industry, priding in its operations as
the most capitalized savings and loans company in the country.

According
to him, the firm is pursuing a win-win clients’ relations model in a new way of
lending to sustain businesses through a strict loan disbursement monitoring
system.

He
indicated Beige Capital, which was established in 2008, should go nationwide by
2014.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Cynthia
Mosunmola Umoru is a young Nigerian lady passionately driving the beauty in
agriculture in her home country. Proud to be a farmer, she’s got her swag –
twitting @PrettyFarmer on her sleek tablet.

Cynthia
produces food to feed her nation, and delights in inspiring other young persons
to take up a profession in agribusiness.

Her
company, Honeysuckle Ventures, distributes livestock produce to fast food
companies and restaurants in Lagos and one of her farms is used for research
and training of young farmers in the agri-food sector.

For
Cynthia, it is critical that women and the youth focus less on the drudgery of
agriculture and rather focus on the opportunities therein for financial
independence and the nutritional security of families.

“If
people are concerned about the quality of the food that they eat, they should
be concerned about the quality of the produce that comes out of the farm…it
means that we need to be involved” she noted. “Now if as women, as young people
we love to eat, wear cloths, we love to spend money, then I think it’s critical
that we begin to look closely at the agric sector”.

Cynthia
inspires her peers not only in Nigeria but others of Africa to venture
agriculture, a profession often perceived to be unattractive to today’s African
youth.

“I
think that people need to begin to look at the brighter side and then
appreciate agriculture for what it is – a wealth creating platform. This is one
sector that singly is capable of creating total employment across its value
chain”, she added.

In
Ghana, the government’s Youth in Agriculture Programme (YIAP) was established to
increase employment opportunities and incomes, encourage entrepreneurship, and
upscale food production.

With
the average national farmer age at 55 years, the programme seeks to increase
productivity in agricultural sector by tapping into the energy of the youth who
compromise about 30percent of Ghana’s active population.

According
to National Programme Coordinator, Alhaji Adam Mahama, the Ghanaian youth are
interested in venturing agriculture but financial constraints remain major
obstacle.

“My
office, on daily basis, is filled with applications, proposals from youth,
university graduates – both male and female – who are interested in going into
agriculture but I’m constrained by funding”, he stated.

Alhaji
Adam estimates that a minimum of Gh₵10,000 ($5,000) is needed to support a university
graduate to be able to take off into full-time agriculture, but such funding is
not readily available.

He
however does not subscribe to the establishment of a fund by government to be
accessed by the youth “because immediately government takes too much interest
in funding such things, people don’t want to be independent”.

Hence,
government should provide the farming inputs whilst the private sector is
engaged in providing financial packages for such agricultural ventures, he
opined.

“If
a package is made in such a way that they take the money from the banks that
they can use and pay back to the banks [and] account to the banks, then they’ll
learn to be independent and good private sector”, noted Alhaji Adam.

Private
sector agribusiness players believe the public-private partnerships are
important to drive young people into agribusiness but this, they say, must be
devoid of politics.

Prince
Obeng Asante, Deputy Managing Director of Ghana Nuts Company, says concepts geared
towards youth employment must move from a political platform to a
pseudo-business organization for the private sector to buy into them.

“It
should be partnership which is built on rock, not on sand which can easily be
washed away when the political season comes to an end”, he observed.

Ghana Nuts
is a leading agro processor,
manufacturer and exporter of a gamut of edible oils, animal feed input
materials and Shea Butter.

The company has been supporting the
agricultural project under the National Service Scheme and recently received
4,000 bags of yellow maize from the NSS Wenchi Farm to produce feed for the
local poultry industry.

The NSS project is making some inroads with
an expected harvest in excess of eight metric tonnes of maize by end of 2012
from the combined 2,120 acres it is farming in five regions.

It is early days yet to ascertain what
percentage of the young national service personnel engaged in the NSS agric
project would opt for full-time ventures in farming or agribusiness at the end
of their service.

But
Prince Obeng says there is the need to critically show young people that
agriculture could provide a dynamic and productive future for them.

Young
people who see the profitability in agriculture will naturally move into the
sector, he said.

“The
cost of production vis-à-vis the revenue has been the major bottleneck; the guy
is spending Gh₵1,000 per hectare and the revenue coming from it is Gh₵900, why
do you think the youth will be there?” queried Prince. “But if today we say
that you spend Gh₵1,000 but your revenue is Gh₵2,000, so the [profit] margin is
Gh₵500, I tell you even the dead will resurrect and go into agriculture”.

To
set the agenda right, Cynthia Mosunmola Umoru, who is currently a Youth
Consultant to the African Union Commission, has emphasized the direct engagement
of the youth in agricultural policy formulation whilst providing avenues for
the youth to access mentors and role models to success in agribusiness.

Already,
youth in agriculture is one of the driving issues on which the United Nation’s
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) focuses its work.

“Granted
that there are a lot of countries benefiting from oil and natural resources,
but most of the countries in Africa today are primarily agriculture-based
communities, so when you think about the future of agriculture you should start
with the source which is the young people of Africa”, said James Tefft, Senior
Policy Officer, FAO Regional Office for Africa.

He
wants the subject of young people in agriculture to be embedded within national
policies in the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD).

He
says investments in the agricultural sector should be about the people and integrating
youth in agriculture is essential in addressing the demographic challenges.

“The
policy framework in Ghana with respect to METASIP exists but we need to get
into the specifics of how these partnerships between public and private actors
actually take place… we need the young people, civil society [to be] engaged in
the process. So to move forward, we need to move into the specific of the
dialogues at very decentralized levels”, said James Tefft.

The
Ghanaian government developed the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment
Plan (METASIP) to implement the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy
(FASDEP II) over the medium term 2011-2015.

Whilst
expecting agricultural policies to be youth-centered, there is the potential
for women and young people to strategically plug into the sector by “unlocking
their minds and view agriculture as a business; it is not just about farming
and tilling the soil – there is processing, packaging, distribution, cold
storage, marketing – the opportunities across its value chain is enormous”,
said Cynthia Umoru.

Transforming
mindsets are the core values of the AgroMindset Organisation, which is educating
a new generation of entrepreneurial minded agriculturists in Ghana.

“Our
idea is using the bottom-up approach to transform youthful thinking from fork
(state of consumption) to field (state of activity and productivity), and so we
seek to introduce the concept of agric entrepreneurship to young people right
from childhood”, said Founding Director, David Asiamah.

The
Organization seeks to erase negative perceptions about farming, showcasing that
it can bring people great wealth and prosperity, through strategies like organising the Agro
Summit and Agro Tourism events, embarking on outreaches, undertaking Green projects
and promoting agribusiness, innovation and entrepreneurship.

“We
have visited over 5000 young people in basic schools and our meetings attract
interested students and industry experts to learn and share ideas at the same
time churning them into entrepreneurs”, he said.

Without
a clear policy strategy for engaging this rising group of rural youth, Africa’s
leaders and the development partners that work with them risk creating an economic
time bomb for their successors, warned David Asiamah.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

President
of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Jane Karuku, has set
out three core decisive actions to be taken in order to drive forward world
food security and feed future generations.

These areas, she says, include building new,
innovative public-private partnerships; ensuring international donors and
African policymakers keep and fund their commitments; and listening to what farmers
really want and need.

Jane
Karuku recently joined former U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Quinn at the World Food
Prize Symposium in the United States to discuss the need for public-private
partnerships and new commitments to fund agricultural development.

According
to her, much of the progress in reducing global hunger announced by the UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organization can be attributed to improvements in African
agriculture.

“Globally,
however, approximately 870 million people still suffer from hunger and chronic
malnutrition. So while we have made important headway, we cannot afford
to lose momentum”, she added.

She
has observed the need to work creatively across sectors to rapidly expand
African agricultural yields and improve global economic growth.

AGRA
has been working to establish small risk-sharing loans with several commercial
banks in order to leverage more affordable credit for farmers and
agribusinesses, stated the AGRA President.

“Together
with our financial partners, we have made a total of $17 million US dollars
available to three commercial banks, which leveraged access to about $160
million US dollars in credit to farmers and African businesspeople on the
ground. Our efforts demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach, which is
now being taken up on a much larger scale by several African governments”, Jane
said.

She noted that the most
successful partnerships are those in which everyone has put money on the table
and is tangibly invested in a shared outcome.

“Whether we are working with
private-sector agribusinesses, small farmers, governments, or international
NGOs, we know that in order to succeed, we must share skills and resources to
move African agriculture forward”.

In addition to building
equitable partnerships, Jane Karuku said African governments and international
donors must be held accountable to keep and fund their commitments.

“When
the funds reach our fields, we must ensure they are invested across the full
agricultural value chain – from better seeds and soils, to improved markets,
more affordable financing and smarter policies. We need to ensure
balanced growth to transform subsistence farming into a viable commercial
enterprise that will drive economic growth”, she demanded.

The
AGRA President firmly believes that African farmers can lead the way to a
stronger global economy, hence the need to listen to the voices of African
farmers by delivering solutions that address the challenges and opportunities
they face every day in the fields and marketplace.

“At
AGRA, we know that farmers are battling climate change. Therefore the
action we take should be focused on long-term sustainability. AGRA and
its partners promote “climate smart” agriculture. Rebuilding soil health and enabling Africa's smallholders to grow more on
less land will reduce the pressure to clear and cultivate forests and
savannahs, thus helping conserve biodiversity and the environment” emphasized
Jane Karuku.

Whilst
calling for application of global best practices to dramatically increase
yields, Jane said it is most important to demonstrate to young people that
there is a strong financial future in farming.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Over
one thousand women from across Ghana converged at Amasaman in the Ga-West
Municipal Assembly of Accra to voice their development needs to government and
other partners.

Representatives
of rural women participating in the national rural women’s rally raised issues concerning
their non-involvement in policy formulation, challenges with land tenure and irrigation
for farming as well as access to machinery to add value to produce.

The
women also voiced the adverse effects of chemical application in farm land preparation
on food crops and the pollution of water bodies through the activities of illegal
mining.

Women’s
Leader, Lydia Sasu told Luv Fm the involvement of women in all aspects of
national socio-political and economic activities is crucial to sustainable
development.

According
to her, giving a voice to the rural woman is important because “women produce
70-80 percent of the food crops in Ghana in small-scale” and their empowerment
will culminate in the much desired positive change.

The
World Rural Women’s Day was instituted in 2008 to be commemorated a day ahead
of World Food Day in recognition of the multiple role women play in local
communities.

The
national event was put together by the Development Action Association (DAA) and
Farmers Organization Network in Ghana (FONG) in collaboration with UN Women, with
the intent of allowing “rural women to speak for themselves”.

The
day was celebrated under the theme “Empowerment
and the role of rural women in poverty and hunger eradication”.

Madam
Lydia is hopeful commitments made by interest groups at the rally to empower rural
women will begin to yield positive fruits from 2013.

One
of the event sponsors, Yara Ghana, noted that the development of the rural economy
demands strategic linkages for rural women to deliver multiple dividends, including poverty reduction, increased food
production and decreased child malnutrition.

Henry Otoo-Mensah, Retail Sales Manager of the leading mineral fertilizer
distribution company, observed that rural women and girls face several constraints that limit their social and
economic opportunities and consequently hinder poverty reduction and
development.

He stated that one of Yara’s major objectives for doing
business in Africa is to use its huge knowledge in fertilizer and food production
to help reduce poverty in women and the more marginalized communities.

“As you know women bear a
disproportionate share of the burden of being poor; they are obliged to spend a
great deal of time not only working in family enterprises but also in nurturing
and rearing children.Small-scale farmers in Ghana's poor rural areas
especially women have very limited access to the assets, skills and improved
technology that would facilitate a shift from subsistence farming to modern,
commercial agriculture”, noted Mr. Otoo-Mensah.

According to him, Yara has committed itself to
empowering the rural woman through the provision of crop production skills and
the appropriate plant nutritional packages to enable the women realize higher
yields in their farming activities.

This year’s World Food Day
celebration is highlighting
the concrete ways in which agricultural cooperatives and producer organizations
help to provide food security, generate employment, and reduce poverty.

The theme for the October 16
event is “Agricultural cooperatives: key to feeding the world”.

The
UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is paying special tribute to cooperatives for working against hunger and
overcoming market and policy constraints by providing their members access to a
range of assets and services.

In Ghana, producer groups,
cooperatives, farmer organizations as well as agricultural partners are commemorating
the day in the Central region.

FAO-Ghana Country Representative,
Musa Saihou Mbenga, in a statement observed that the structure of the Ghanaian
agricultural system is changing rapidly, hence the need for independent
producers to vertically coordinate their production through the agricultural
system to maximise returns.

“Cooperatives comprise an
important and growing part of this changing agricultural industry. Due to the
singularity of member owned-member managed, cooperatives have the ability to
solve various market problems facing the agricultural producers”, he said.

The
World Food Day has the objectives of encouraging attention to agricultural food
production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and
non-governmental efforts to this end; encourage economic and technical
cooperation among developing countries; and encourage the participation of
rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in
decisions and activities influencing their living conditions.

It
is also a day to heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the
world; promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world; and
strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against
hunger, malnutrition and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and
agricultural development.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Some Ghanaian cocoa farmers are recording improved
crop yields and incomes by 160 percent under an agricultural finance pilot to
expand access to savings services in rural areas.

Working in partnership
with Opportunity International, the MasterCard
Foundation has provided 23,000 agricultural
loans to over one million depositors and borrowers within the past four years.

The $8 million dollar “Financial Services for
Rural Communities and Smallholder Farmers in Africa” Program is being
implemented in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda.

President and CEO of MasterCard
Foundation, Reeta Roy, has observed that the innovative
model has allowed high returns for farmers in Ghana.

“A very important part of the project is to help
farmers not only to have access to savings but to have access to extension
services, fertilizer [and] planting techniques so that they can increase the
yield of their crops and they can be plugged into the value chain so there is
market access for their crops”, she told Luv Biz Report in an interview.

Farmers in 33 districts and six regions of Ghana are
presently accessing the agricultural financing scheme.

According to Reeta, the farmers’ savings are used
to expand farms and diversify to new crops whilst financing their children’s
education.

The Foundation also partners HFC Bank to better
serve the financial needs of young people with focus on financial literacy,
planning, budgeting and savings.

The
Toronto-based MasterCard Foundation was established in 2006 to advance microfinance and youth
learning to promote financial inclusion and prosperity.

Through
collaboration with committed partners in 48 developing countries, the Foundation
is helping people living in poverty to access opportunities to learn and
prosper.

Over
$600 million have so far been committed to a range of projects – with almost 70
percent of the investments in 22 African countries.

Recently, the $500 million MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program was launched to empower
15,000
young underprivileged Africanswith the
requisite educational skills to participate in a competitive global economy.

The
comprehensive educational support approach involves the provision of
scholarship to cover tuition, boarding, books and pocket money as well as
mentorship and internship opportunities for beneficiaries.

According to Reeta Roy, one of the unique
objectives of the project is to profile high achieving young people who would
thrive in a learning environment.

“We
are also looking for young people who already have some of the characteristics
of leadership and the ability and desire to do something with their lives and
give back to community”, she noted.

In
Ghana, the Foundation has a ten-year $13million partnership with Ashesi
University to provide tertiary education to over 200 young people.

Another
project with the NGO, Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), looks at girl
education at the secondary and post-secondary levels – focusing on rural girls
with disadvantaged background to complete Senior High School and others to
access financial literacy for gainful employment.

Reeta
Roy has emphasized that the Scholars Program provides employability skills that
lead to job creation.

“I
hope that this programme sends a signal not only to young people who have
higher aspirations, but it also becomes something which other donors, other
organizations which are doing scholarships will also be inspired and continue
to put those resources towards enabling access to quality education for young
people” she said.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Ghana needs
revised regulatory framework for health professionals in order to safeguard
public health and meet international best practices, says the President of the Ghana
Association Biomedical Laboratory Scientists (GABMLS).

Prince Sodoke
Amuzu is therefore advocating the speedy passage of the Health Professions
Regulatory Bodies Bill, which would regulate the training and practice of
allied health professions in the country when passed into law.

He was reacting
to calls by Deputy Health Minister, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, for members of the Association
to take solace in the passage of other health-related bills.

Addressing
the Annual National Congress of the GABMLS, holding in Kumasi, Mr. Mettle-Nunoo
enjoined members of the Association to celebrate and congratulate parliament for
passing “very strategic and critical bills for the health sector”, including
the Mental Health Bill, Professional Institutions Bill and the Public Health
Bill.

“The
particular legislation that can take away quackery has not been passed”, he
told Luv Fm. “The regulation about bio-safety, public [and] mental health are
all nice regulations that are useful for our healthcare system; but the professional
that performs the duty is not regulated and those that are even regulated –
Medical and Dental, Pharmacy and Nursing – their regulation is not competent because
the laws are old and need review”.

According
to Prince Amuzu, the challenges with the existing laws regulating the health
services are addressed in the Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Bill.

The GABS
scientific forum is discussing prevailing public health issues in the country, including
new operating procedures, initiatives and standards of work.

The theme
for the three-day Congress is “Strengthening
Medical Laboratory Services and Systems in Ghana: Key in Promoting Quality
Healthcare Delivery”.

Vice-President,
Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, in a speech read for him, acknowledged that
availability and access to quality laboratory services are among major
challenges contributing to delayed or inappropriate responses to epidemics,
disease control and patient management.

He therefore
identified the “need for a comprehensive national laboratory policy which will
focus on laboratory organization, structure and coordination. Such a policy
should provide a guide for staff training, motivation and retention, the
integration of services and standards for the provision and maintenance of
essential facilities and equipment”.

President
of the International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Professor Vincent Gallicchio is among reputable
local and international speakers attending the Congress.

For him,
there exists deficiency in the overall health system “without having properly
structured, accredited and credential personnel, laboratory professionals as
well as the hospitals [and] educational programmes to train them”.

Biomedical
Laboratory Scientists are entrusted with the onerous assignment of providing
quality diagnosis that is at the centre of treatment and management of
diseases.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The
drive to strengthen agricultural value chains was strongly upheld at he
recently held 2nd African Green Revolution Forum in Arusha,
Tanzania.

Most
discussions touted the value chains as viable option to engage young people in agriculture.

According
to Mr. Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA),
there are opportunities for Africa to benefit from innovations in agriculture
and information and communication technologies and for him, these new
technologies appeal to the younger generation and give them opportunities to
play a greater part in the agricultural revolution.

He
added that it is this new generation of Africans – male and female – with their
energy and entrepreneurial spirit that needs to contribute to create a
sustained transformation.

But
there are other concerns of how to replace the ageing farming population with
energetic youth.

Kofi
Adu Domfeh posed the question to Jane Karuku, President of AGRA, who says agriculture must first be seen to be profitable to attract the youth.

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Kofi Adu Domfeh is a Development Journalist, Social Entrepreneur & Human Rights Promoter. He works with Multimedia Group Limited in Ghana as an Assisting News Editor.
He has corresponded for international media organizations for radio and online feature reporting.
His reporting interests are in economics, agriculture, environment and science, spanning assignments in West, East and Southern Africa.
He was selected among the TwentyTen Dream Team of 18 African Journalists to go to the football World Cup in South Africa to report on Sports & Society.
Domfeh is a Fellow of Africa Means Business (AMB), the Thomson Reuters Foundation and a Mentor under the John Templeton Foundation’s Biosciences for Farming in Africa (B4F4) Fellowship.
In 2014, he emerged Winner of the African Climate Change and Environment Reporting (ACCER) Awards. He was 3rd Best of the same Awards in 2013.
He holds a B.A Degree in Sociology and Social Work, Diploma in Journalism and others in Business and ICT.
His blog is to upscale development journalism in Africa.